Auror Tests and Lemonade
by ArwynSwan
Summary: Twenty years old now, Hermione and Ginny clean out 12 Grimmauld Place so that Ginny and Harry can move in. When Harry qualifies for aurorship, everyone shares in the happiness. Short and sweet.


**This is my first fanfiction. I do not own any of the characters, places, or, well, anything.**

**Auror Tests and Lemonade**

"Wow, Ginny, that's great news! I was surprised they even let him begin training without finishing school." Ginny rolled up the little piece of parchment that she had just finished reading, gave Pigwidgeon a treat, and laughed at my comment.

"Hermione! I thought you were smart! This is Harry Potter we're talking about, right? The man who defeated You-Kn—Voldemort? Who just qualified for aurorship after only three years of training?" She waved the note at me.

I shrugged. I knew that Harry was a natural at fighting the dark arts. I had known him for nine years, after all, and accompanied him on many of his heroic excursions.

"I know, it's just that you learn so many important skills, and really essential theory in seventh year, you know that." Ginny just rolled her eyes at me.

"He's a fast learner," she said with a smirk as she went back to scrubbing the grungy tiles of the third floor bathroom at 12 Grimmauld Place with a Mrs. Skower's Essential Sorceress' SOS Scrubber Pad. I tackled the shower walls with my own pad. We had been continuing the cleaning process that we had started five years ago, when the Order of the Phoenix had used the huge house as their headquarters. Now Harry and Ginny were moving in (temporarily, Ginny always stressed) while they looked for a more suitable house to live together. They still weren't engaged, despite Mrs. Weasley's obvious and frequent hints and prods, but I could tell that they wouldn't resist Molly's advice for long. I was just waiting for Harry to mysteriously go out for a walk and come back with a small, square package. Ginny wanted me to put an object recognition charm on him so that I could tell her exactly when that time was, but I refused to ruin the surprise.

For the past two weeks, the first of summer, Ron and I had been staying with Harry, Ginny, and, of course, Kreacher, at the old Black family home, cleaning. I returned home once a week to check up on my parents, who were almost entirely recovered from the memory charm that I put on them three years ago. Ron went to work three times a week to help George out at the shop, and Harry had been taking his auror tests along with the students who started training the year before him, so Ginny was the only one who was there all the time. "If I'm going to have to live here, it had better be clean" she said frequently, rolling her eyes as only Ginny could.

It's funny to think about it, but Ginny is my best friend. Going to school with Ron and Harry, I never really knew who my best friend was. But now everything is laid out nicely, and it makes me really happy. I have had so much time to talk to her while sweeping, polishing, and scrubbing. She had even convinced me that the Weird Sisters are not such a bad band after all.

Ginny slumped against the wall, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth comically.

"Let's go make some lemonade, we deserve it," she suggested, I had to agree with her. We jumped up and ran down the four flights of stairs to the basement kitchen.

"Hi, Kreacher!" I greeted the old, wrinkled house elf as I passed him in the hall. He gave me a huge grin and bowed deep. I grinned back. I was tempted to curtsey to him, but decided that it would probably be a little too much for him. I had learned a lot about working with house elves in my job at the Ministry with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (a name which I am campaigning to change, as it sounds much too domineering and superior).

When I entered the kitchen, Ginny had summoned two lemons, which were now squeezing themselves out into silver goblets bearing the Black family crest. We heard the front door open.

"Hi guys, I'm back." Harry's voice floated in through the open kitchen door. Ginny's face split into a proud grin and the lemons dropped to the counter as she went running off to greet Harry and congratulate him on passing all of his tests. I followed her, though not with such alacrity.

"Congratulations," I said as I turned the corner into the front entrance. There, I found Harry and Ginny embracing with looks of extreme joy etched into their faces. Ginny had a thin band of gold glinting on her left hand. "Oh! Congratulations! Both of you!"

"I guess I can succeed even without my N.E.W.T.s." Harry joked. I frowned.

"I still think it would have been better..." I let it go, knowing that I was fighting a losing, or, rather, lost, battle. "I'm impressed. And congratulations again." Ginny dragged Harry upstairs. I wasn't standing in the hall for long before the door opened and Ron walked in, looking wind-tousled and ecstatic.

"Hey, Harry, congratulations," he called through the house. Then, spotting me, "Oh, it's you."

"Oh, yeah, it's me, Ron!" I said indignantly, "You know, the one you've lived with for a year."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, and making up for it by pulling me towards him and kissing me.

"That's better," I whispered to him, standing on my toes to reach his ear. He kissed me again. Then POP! "Uuugh, Ron, stop _doing_ that!" I heard him chuckle from the kitchen and arrived there, without apparating, just as he picked up _my_ glass of lemonade. I pointed my wand at it, and the goblet zoomed out his hand and into mine. I took a dainty sip, just to mock him. He had that I-am-Ron-Weasley-and-I-am-enormously-clever look on his face, as he pointed his wand at me. Instead of the goblet whizzing from my hand, just the juice rose out of the goblet and hurtled across the room at him, and, finding no vessel to deposit itself in, splashed across his face. I burst out laughing. Ron's expression was priceless. I collapsed on the floor in hysterics as Ron, wearing his disgruntled look, washed his face off and dried his magenta Weasley's Wizard Wheezes robes with his wand. Then he reluctantly smiled and laughed a little bit about it.

"I guess _accio lemonade_ really just applies to the lemonade."

I looked up at him from my place of collapse on the floor and felt a wave of love and sympathy. I got up and hugged him as hard as I could. His lips found mine and we were kissing, as we had many times before, sincerely and happily. He pulled away slightly, and I gasped for breath.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Will you marry me?"


End file.
